Virtual Team Leadership

Leading people in complex, remote, virtual, extended and matrix teams.

On our page on virtual teams we identified several different ‘flavours’ of virtual team which may work across distance (remote), cultures and time zones (international or global), in a matrix with multiple reporting lines and high levels of cross functional working, or may even extend outside the traditional organization in teams that include suppliers, partners and customers. Virtual team leadership in these teams requires new skills and ways of working.

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Virtual Teams

Leading each of these different types of virtual team can present subtly virtual team leadership challenges.

We support virtual team leaders in three key areas:

leading the transformation – inspiration, consulting, coaching and support for leaders in how to communicate, role model and lead the change to a more virtual way of working

building capability – building the skills, confidence and people capability needed to lead and succeed in virtual teams and organizations, face-to-face, through webinar, online or blended.

embedding new ways of working – change programs to introduce new virtual ways of working in areas like meetings, travel and decision-making at scale across the organization.

Virtual Leadership Challenges

Here are some of the challenges we have experienced in virtual team leadership since we developed the world’s first virtual teams training course in 1994, We have worked with over 300 major multinationals and trained over 100,000 people in these skills over the last 20 years:

Exercising influence without authority without formal solid or dotted reporting lines to your team members

Leading people from different cultures and time zones with different expectations about leadership and management

Leading people who work on multiple teams and who may only spend a part of their time on your team

Engaging and communicating with people through technology rather than face-to-face

Working across functions, business units and geography in a complex organization such as a matrix

Finding the right balance of trust and control with people who you don’ t meet often

Managing competing goals and priorities and higher levels of conflict

You may be running a team that extends outside your own company to work with customers (such as a global accounts team) or with suppliers and partners (such as external supply chain partners).

Because of the wide variety of virtual team leadership situations a “one size fits all“ virtual team program is unlikely to fit your specific blend of challenges and business issues, so our training programs are tailored to your specific needs.

We have existing intellectual property (IP) in all of these areas, and can quickly create a tailored training program based on your specific needs and challenges.